Meta removes controversial AI feature on Instagram after backlash

[highplainsdem]

Source: TechCrunch

Meta has axed a controversial feature that allowed users to modify photos from public Instagram accounts using AI. The feature, which was rolled out earlier this week along with a batch of other AI tools, “missed the mark” and is no longer available, according to the company.

Earlier this week, Meta announced Muse Image, a new AI image generator built by Meta Superintelligence Labs, its dedicated AI unit. Meta promoted one feature that allowed individuals to generate images by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts that they wanted to reference. The feature, which wasn’t designed to alert a user if their photos were used in this way, prompted immediate backlash.

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Now Meta has reversed course. The company issued a blog post Friday announcing that it was removing the feature. Puck News founding partner Dylan Byers was the first to share the company’s decision.

“Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way,” the company posted on its blog. “We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”

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Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/10/meta-removes-controversial-ai-feature-on-instagram-after-backlash/

[Karasu]

1. But you don't see them bringing back encrypted Instagram messages, do you? No one consented to AI scraping their

private messages, either.

"Missed the mark" my ass. They know damn well what they were doing and so does everyone fucking else.

"Useful creative tool?" How was that shit either useful OR creative? How? They were going to let anyone have free reign to feed the likeness of else anyone with a public account to AI and do whatever the fuck they want with it. Without consent. As always.

Meta has effectively been pushing forms of digital rape and finally went too far for even their user base.

They are doing everything in their power to match Palantir. Evil pieces of shit.

[AZJonnie]

3. If you post photos on Instagram anyone can download them, feed them into any one of dozens

of AI programs that can generate altered images, and then post those to Instagram and anywhere else.

Instragram getting rid of it in no way prevents anyone from doing the functional equivalent anytime they want, though it takes an extra minute or two. And there's certainly no mechanism by which it's ever reported to the user that this happened with one of their photos in that case either.

What they tried to here is keep users within their ecosystem. Every time someone leaves Insta to feed a photo into Leonardo or whatever, they switch apps. The aren't watching the ads. They aren't 'engaging'. That's actually the nefarious goal here: Keep the customer's attention.

[thesquanderer]

2. I think they're missing the big picture: Nobody wants ANYTHING that they have been coming out with. (n/t)